Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-02-21

tion to the World to Escape for Eter-
nifty.
BROOKLYN. Feb. 20.-The opening
hymn at the Brooklyn Tabernacle this
morni ng, sung by the whole congrega-
tion, begins:
Safely through another week
God has brought us on our way:
Let us now n blessing GEEK,
Waiting in His courts to-day"
Prof. Henry Eyre Brown, the organist,
rendered Satz No. l I'm minor, by
Thiele. Alter a running commentary on
appropriate passages of Scripture, the
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, d. D., took for
his text: "And he changed his behavior
before them, and feigned himself mad in
their hands, and scrabbled on the doors
of the gate, and let his spittle fall down
upon his beard" / Sam. XXI, ID. He
| said:
There is one scene in the life of David that
| you may not have pondered. You nave seen
| him with harp playing the devil out OF
| Saul; with a sling, smashing the skull of
Goliath; with sword, hacking to pieces the
Phllistines; with sceptre, ruling vast
! realm; with psalm. gathering all nations
| into doXology; but IN my text, you have
| David playing the fool. He has been anointed
1
| among the Gathites. They begin to suspect
| who he ia and say: ~ wonder if this is not
| the warrior King David! 1t looks like him.
| Is not this the man about whom they used TO
make poetry, and about whom they COM
| posed dance, SO that the maidens
OF the city, reeling now on one
| foot and now on the other, used to
sing: saul has slain his thousands, but David
| has slain his tens of thousands p Yes, it is
| very much like David. 1t must be David. 1t
| is David" David. to escape their hands,
1 ha a Tod 10 Phi,
| himself: 'If act crazily then of course these
| people will not injure me. No one would be
| so much of coward as to assault mad
man" So. one day, while these Gathites are
| watching David with increased suspicion.
| they see him standing by the door running his
| hands meaninglessly up and down the panels
-scrabbling on the door as though he would
| climb up, his mouth wide open. drOoing like
| an infant | suppose the boys of the streets
! threw missiles at him; but the sober people
! of the town said: This s not fair. Do you
not see that he has lost his reason DO not
touch this madman. Hands of hands
| off!' So David escaped; but what an
hibition he made of himself before all the
| ages! There was majesty In King Lear's
| madness after Regan and Goneril, his daugh-
ters, had persuaded him to Danish their SIS
| ter, Cordeila, and all the friends of the drama
The craziness of Meg MerrilIes was wIerd
and imposing and the most telling passage in
Walter ScOtts ''Guy Mannering.'' There
was fascination about the insanity of Alex
4
ance of the Bible that the world ever saw
made it between the madhouses. Some time
| ago, while L was visiting the insane asylum
| on BlackWel's Island, demented woman
came up to me and said in most tragic
| style:
| "God moves in a mysterious way,
| His wonders TO perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
| And rides upon the storm"
But there was nothing grand, nothing
,nA hfw.~ nj TO-
about this stimulation on the part of David.
| Instead of trusting In tue Lord, as he had on
| other occasions, he gathers before him vast
| audience of all generations that were to
| come, and standing on that conspicuous stage
of history, in the presence OF all the ages, he
impersonates the slavering idiot! And he
changed his behavior before them. and
feigned himself mad in their hands, and
scrabbed at the door Of the gate. and let his
spittle fall upon bis Deard.n
| Taking the behavior Of David as a sugges-
| ton, wish to tell you how many of the wise,
and the brave, and the regal sometimes play
the fool. And in the first place. / remark,
that those men as badly play the fool as this
man of the text, who in any crisis OF life take
their case out OF the hand of God. David, in
this case. acted as though there were no God
to lift him out of the predicament. What a
contrast between his behavior, when this
brave little man stood up in front OF the giant
ten feet in height, and looking into his face
said: .Thou comest to me win a sword. and
with a spear and with q shield; but / come
|
God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast
deGed. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into mine hand, and !
will smte thee, and take thine head from
thee, and will give the carcasses of the hosts
OF the Philistines this day unto the fowls OF
the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth,
that all the earth may know that there is a
God in IsraeF'-between that time and this
time, when he debased himself, and bedrag-
| Ged his manhood, and affected insanity in
order that he might escape from the grip Of
the Gathites. In the one case he played the
| hero. In the other case he played the fool
30 does every man who, IN the grea
crises of life, takes his case
out of the hand OF God. Tn,
life of the most Insignificant man in this house
10 too vast for any human management. One
time, returning from the West, / very easily
got on the locomotive while passing over tho
| plains, and talked with the engineer; bu
| | thou ght would like TO sit on the locomotive
as 1t came down from the mountains amidst
that most wonderful scenery on this CONT.
nent. 1 asked the engineer II might ride
but he courleously denied me, for there tht
grade is so steep, and so winding, and &c
perilous that he must not have anyone on the
locomotive who may divert his attention when
eye, and hand, and foot, and brain must b.
concentred, ready for the most sudden emer-
gency. Well. my friends. life i so steep, and
SO perilous, and so exposed to sudden surprises
: th at none but the Lord Almighty can guide
and engineer IL, and our disasters come from
the fact that we want to get up ana help the
Lord to manage the Train. Keep or tn6 en-
gine! Be willing TO let God pull you wher
He wants TO pull you. You have no right fol
, an instant TO surrender your sanity and man.
! hood as David surrendered his. Put your
trust in God, and he will take you through
and over the m Mountains. i very much sus-
pect that all the successful enterprises that
were ever carried on, and all the successful
. | lives that have ever been lived have been
fully surrendered to God. When the girl
Victoria was awakened in the night, ana told
that the throne OF Great Britain was hers
she said to the prelate informing her: 81 ask
your prayers" and then and there they knelt
down and prayed. Do you wonder tina;
though since that time all the thrones OF
Europe have fallen or been fearfully shaken,
hers stands as irm as the day she aecended
1t; and in every country under the sun
wherever an EDgl lshman hears that name
pronounced, ne feels like waving
| his hat and CRYING: "God save the Queen n
That man and that woman, who put their
trust In God. will 20 through in triumph
while those who attempt to gather under their
| own supervision the intricate and elaborate
affairs OF their life, are miserably playing the
fool. stood on the beach. looking OF upon
| the sea: and there was II strong wind blow
ing, and noticed that some OF the vessels
were going that way, and other vessels were
going another way. said 20 myself: "How
Is It that the same wind sends one vessel in
one direction ana another vessel In anolh
directionW / found out, by looking, that II
was the different way thoy had the salts set.
And 80 does trouble come on this world.
Some men IL drives into the harbor OF
| IL depends upon the way you have your sails
aat sn nnl H.